Physics Students' Epistemologies in the Age of the Pandemic
Abstract
Talk 5 of Session 2: Frameworks for Assessing and Responding to Student Expectations and Needs
Physics Students’ Epistemologies in the Age of the Pandemic
"Physics students’ epistemologies are expectations, attitudes, and beliefs that physics students hold about what is necessary to be successful in their study of this science. These epistemologies can play a critical role in how students respond to the course and how they process information to construct their knowledge. They can influence what classroom activities and skills students think are important; what information they think is useful and what information they think is irrelevant. Often these epistemologies differ dramatically from “expert” epistemologies, or what instructors expect students to do. The Maryland Physics Expectations Survey (MPEX) is a survey instrument that measures student views at the beginning and end of a first semester physics class to help determine how student epistemologies may change as a result of a particular pedagogical approach. This survey was given at the beginning and end of the spring semester of 2021 when instruction was remote. The same survey was given in the fall and spring semesters of 2021 and 2022, when in-person instruction resumed. The results of the surveys which examine epistemological shifts for these cohorts that may have resulted from the varying pedagogies, employed by necessity due to the pandemic, is the focus of this talk."
Toni Stone, Lecturer, UC Merced